The Treaty of Portsmouth and Its LegaciesSteven Ericson, ed.; Allen Hockley, ed.

Dartmouth2008 • 268 pp. 4 illus. 6 x 9"History - 20th Century

$35.00 Hardcover, 978-1-58465-722-4

“Generally speaking, the entire volume is well worth reading. It provides excellent summaries of the major interpretations of its authors. It would be a good companion piece for an undergraduate... [continued in Reviews below]”—Journal of Japanese Studies

The latest, probing look at the 1905 Portsmouth Peace Treaty, the last peace agreement between Japan and Russia

On the centennial of the peace treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–5, Dartmouth College hosted a conference to examine the background and making of that treaty and its long-term implications for international relations. Over forty North American, Japanese, and Russian scholars and practitioners participated in the forum. The Treaty of Portsmouth and Its Legacies presents eight outstanding conference papers, revised for publication, and two additional papers solicited to round out the scholarship. Together these papers illuminate diplomacy before and after the war, the peace process, the political and cultural legacies of Portsmouth, and the treaty’s significance for Asia-Pacific relations today.

"Generally speaking, the entire volume is well worth reading. It provides excellent summaries of the major interpretations of its authors. It would be a good companion piece for an undergraduate student together with a general history text. It offers a short summary to allow a motivated reader to go on to the longer monographs on the war and peace. The meaty endnotes to each essay include excellent bibliographies for the interest reader who wishes to know more. I commend Ericson and Hockley for organizing the conference and for providing us with an excellent volume to whet our interest on the important topic. They have brought us an excellent piece of scholarship that will be received with much appreciation of the treaty." —Journal of Japanese Studies

"The conference papers published here contribute important historical and diplomatic insights." —Historical New Hampshire

Grouped under three headings: the diplomatic aspects of the treaty, its legacies, and its contemporary implications. . . The four contributions by Japanese scholars are especially valuable since the materials in their language are not normally accessible to Russian specialists." —Slavic Review

“A unique analysis, the work of an extraordinary group of international scholars, this book offers fresh and penetrating views of the diplomacy of an important conflict—’World War Zero,’ provoked by Russia's first war with Japan, 1904-05.”—John Curtis Perry, Henry Willard Denison Professor of Japanese Diplomatic History, Tufts University

"The Treaty of Portsmouth of 1905 devined the territorial lay-out in Northeast China for most of the first half of the twentieth century and still casts its shadow over many of the current problems in East Asia. Its legacies can only be explored by culling the archives of the many powers involved in the peace-making, and the editors have assembled a multi-national group of expert contributors for that purpose.”—Ian Nish, Professor Emeritus of International History, London School of Economics